1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention is apparatus and method for wrapping a bale of hay or the like with protective material prior to ejection from a baler.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Bales of agricultural product are frequently stored outside. They are, therefore, subjected to wind and rain from the time of baling until the time when the bales are used. This weathering can result in the deterioration of the quality of the product, especially around the outside and bottom of the bale. This decrease in quality may prevent hay, for instance, from being consumed by cattle or render it nutritionally useless if it is consumed.
This invention is particularly applicable to round hay bales. The use of the term "hay or the like" can refer to any crop material, however.
Hay is the most common source of stored feed used in beef cattle operations. Harvested at the proper stage of plant growth and undamaged by weather, hay provides nutrients at a lower cost than any other form of feed with the exception of pasture or silage. In recent years large round baling has mechanized hay harvesting, thereby lowering labor requirements for hay hauling and hay feeding in comparison with the requirements for conventional square bale haying. A recent research study found that round baling reduced the harvesting, transporting, and handing labor for hay by one-half of that required for rectangular bales.
Research has shown that a firm round bale of hay stored one year outside will lose 22% dry matter. The same bale stored for two years will lose 25% dry matter. This means that a round bale of hay stored outside for two years will only have 75% of its original weight remaining for feeding. The main loss that occurs to a round bale is on the outer portion of the bale. Other studies have shown that round hay bales wrapped with plastic wrap with the ends exposed can maintain hay quality equal to hay stored in barns, with only 5.5% to 13.4% weathering. An efficient and practical means for applying weather-proofing to crop material bales, therefore, has significant nutritional and economic values.
Effective baling of any agricultural crop material usually requires binding the bale to protect and preserve the bale's integrity. Compressing the bale may also be of protective and preservative value. It is an object of the present invention to provide not only an improved, efficient and practical means for wrapping a bale of crop material such that the bale is protected from the elements but also a means to bind and compress the bale. It is possible for the application of protective wrap to serve at the same time three "protective" functions, that of covering from the elements, of binding and of compressing. Furthermore it is not necessary that "protective" wrap consist of solid sheeting. A perforated or net material may effectively preserve baled crop materials in the field from deterioration from the elements as well as offer binding and compressing characteristics.
An improved efficient and practical means for applying protective wrap to bales of crop material should offer several further advantageous features. An improved wrapping apparatus should be installable on most commercial balers. Therefore, the mechanism should work independently of the particular means used to form the bale in the baler, such as horizontal rollers or vertical belts. The protective wrap used in an improved wrapping apparatus should serve all three functions of covering, binding and compressing. Furthermore, an improved wrapping apparatus should be operable with wrap that has an adhering quality in order to simplify the problem of attaching the initial free end of the wrap to the bale and the problem of securing the tail end of the wrap to the bale. As other features, an improved hay wrapping apparatus should provide for the easy replacement of rolls of protective wrap and should be completely remotely controllable. The capacity to work with short rolls of film, rolls that are shorter than the bale, is an advantage. Short rolls are easier to handle, and short rolls of standard length should be less expensive than rolls manufactured to special lengths.
The present invention, in distinction to the prior art, offers all of the above features. The present invention can feed the wrap through the crop intake opening into the bale chamber, a throat that exists on most commercial balers. Thus, the invention works independently of a particular baler's means of forming and compressing the bale in the bale chamber and is installable on most commercial balers. The dispensing system of the invention does not depend upon a gravity feed or leave portions of the wrap free to be blown by the wind. Thus, the present invention works well with an adhering wrap, such as plastic stretch film, that offers superior binding and compressing as well as adhering characteristics. The present invention offers the feature of traversing. Thus, the invention can work with short easily purchased and handled rolls of protective wrap. The present invention offers the feature of roping, which is a sequentially gathering in and spreading out the wrap, laterally, as it is applied to the bale. Roping permits a superior feed of the wrap initially, a superior severing of the wrap at the finish and superior binding qualities.
To offer the above features, the present invention teaches a novel feeding means, a novel traversing means and the concept of roping, all remotely controllable and operable with an adhering wrap, such as plastic stretch film or stretch net. These novel means for wrapping a bale depart from the teachings of the prior art as found in patents to Merritt U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,431; Raes U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,213; Busse U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,812; Clostermeyer U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,844 and U.K. No. 2,152,872A; Bruer U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,398; VanGinhoven U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,409,784 and 4,366,665; Meiners U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,296,596 and 4,173,112; Biller, West German Disclosure No. DE 3301 420 A 1; and Schulz, West German Disclosure No. DE 27 05 101 A 1.
In the feeding mechanisms taught by the prior art, above, the wrap is either (1) dropped by gravity into the throat chamber of the baler where the incoming crop material is being moved to the bale forming chamber, the wrap being caught up and moved along with the crop material into the bale forming chamber and incorporated into the outer layer of the bale being formed; or (2) the wrap is dropped by gravity into the pickup conveyor fingers of the baler and by those fingers is moved to a portion of a rotating roller or belt of the bale forming chamber which catches and rolls the wrap into the outside of a formed bale; or (3) the wrap is dropped by gravity directly onto the bale or a roller or belt that forms a part of the bale forming chamber, the roller or belt picking up the wrap and carrying it into and onto the circumference of the forming or formed bale. Each of these means of initially fixing the end of the wrap to the bale depends upon gravity and either fresh cut material being fed into the baler and/or a particular belt or roller of the bale chamber. In fact, these wrap feeding mechanisms of the prior art mirror the teachings of the feeding mechanisms of the twine binding systems in the prior art.
Applicant's feed mechanism, contrary to the prior art, depends neither on gravity nor upon fresh cut material being fed into the bale chamber nor on the assistance of any particular belt or roller or pickup fingers on the baler itself. Applicant's feed mechanism, because it hand delivers the wrap to the bale, so to speak, is not easily disturbed by wind. Applicant's feed method and apparatus, therefore, is applicable to a variety of commercial balers, whatever the belt or roller arrangement of the bale forming chamber may be, and will operate in wind and when there is no further crop material to be picked up. In fact, Applicant's feed mechanism works well with adhering wraps that are easily disturbed by wind. Applicant's feed mechanism is further enhanced by the ability to feed the wrap in a gathered, or roped, state.
Biller, above, offers one deviation from the feeding mechanisms predominantly taught in the prior art. For purposes other than protection from the elements or binding or compressing, Biller teaches affixing a cloth to a rolled bale compacted in a baler. Biller feeds the cloth to the bale not by a free end but, in essence, by an intermediate section of the cloth. The intermediate section of the cloth, fixed at both ends, is fed to the bale by folding the cloth over a rod and passing the rod, width-wise, through a space between two compacting rollers of a bale chamber. This complicated scheme requires precise timing such that just before the moment of contact between the cloth and the rotating bale, one end of the cloth is released so that it becomes free and can be drawn into the rotating bale. Applicant's feeding mechanism, to the contrary, is far simpler than Biller's. Applicant works with the free end of the wrap that is (usually) left from a prior severing. Applicant's mechanism depends on a biased element holding a portion of a free end of the wrap against a feed element. The feed element delivers the wrap directly to the rotating bale. Pull, caused by the wrap's adherence to the rotating bale, overcomes the force of the bias element and pulls the wrap free from the feed element. As a result of this means of attachment, Applicant's feeding mechanism can be started and stopped at any time in the feeding cycle without hindrance to the feeding process, and Applicant's scheme works well with adhering wrap. Such does not appear possible with Biller's complicated scheme. Biller's scheme presumes that the end of the cloth, once freed, wi progress smoothly, without catching, between two oppositely turning rollers and immediately affix itself to the rotating bale. Were the feeding process interrupted after the ends were freed but before attached, it is not at all clear that Biller's apparatus could continue to function.
Among the prior art cited above, only the disclosed patent application of Schulz, together with a the Haywrap machine and a UM hay wrapping tool, both as commercially advertised, teaches wrapping a bale with wrap of a width substantially less than the width of the bale, so that covering the bale is by traversing the wrap sideways as the bale is turned. The Haywrap machine and UM hay wrapping tool both deal only with formed bales already lying in the field. They require equipment that includes the capacity to spear, lift and rotate a bale. It is unclear to what extent the Haywrap machine and the UM universal hay tool are remotely controllable. There is no teaching that either the machine nor the tool could be mounted on a commercial baler. Schulz teaches a hay wrapping mechanism mounted in the forward compartment of a baler that feeds wrap to a formed bale through the crop material throat and that uses a roll of wrap whose width is less than the width of the bale. The roll of wrap traverses the width of the bale as the bale is turned in the bale chamber. Schulz does not clearly teach, however, traversing the bale in both directions. It is unclear to what extent Sohulz's method and apparatus is remotely controllable. Furthermore, Schulz does not teach a manner of traversing that requires no independent power, control or coordination but rather is controlled strictly by the pull of the wrap into the bale.